How to prepare for interviews
After successful years in the classroom, you’ve become ever more sure that you’re ready to assume the challenges and rewards of school leadership. You enrolled in graduate-level educational leadership classes, pored over a bevy of academic literature and research reports, drafted papers late at night, practiced leadership skills while volunteering for school and district committees, served as an administrative intern (devoting considerable time supervising school lunch!), and submitted certification paperwork to the department of education bureaucracy, and now the moment has come to apply for your first administrative position.
4C’s of Communication
Avoid conflict with your colleagues by being clear about goals and commitments, while fostering connection and curiosity, write Karin Hurt and David Dye.
No matter what conflict you face, there will always be four dimensions that will make it productive. Today, we share these four dimensions and a few of our G.O.A.T. Powerful Phrases from our new book, Powerful Phrases for Dealing With Workplace Conflict: What to Say Next to De-Stress the Workday, Build Collaboration, and Calm Difficult Customers (Harper Collins).
Revisiting Mental Health for Superintendents
Even amidst high turnover, superintendent mental health is often left out of wider conversations about student and staff wellness in K12 schools. The good news is that leaders are sharing their strategies for remaining energized and in touch with the reasons they became educators.
School board meetings, even when they go smoothly, are a source of stress for many superintendents. That’s why Superintendent Quintin Shepherd of Victoria ISD in Texas schedules elementary school visits for the morning after meeting days. He spends his time reading to kindergarteners and serving as a teaching assistant.
FAFSA Update
Secretary Miguel Cardona promised “transformational changes” after a slew of technical issues caused months of delays and errors with the newly overhauled form.
The Education Department said Thursday that it is taking steps to improve operations at its Federal Student Aid office after months of delays and errors with this year’s overhauled Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The form, known as FAFSA, had a botched rollout, disrupting decision timelines for current and prospective college students and schools across the country.
New Reading Instructional Materials in Texas
Roughly half of Texas students read below grade level, but when teachers craft lessons to help them, they often rely on instructional materials that aren’t rigorous enough.
Many teachers use search engines to help them build their lessons — and if you Google for “grade five reading materials,” one story that comes up is called Tuttle the Turtle. That passage is more reflective of a third-grade reading level than that of a fifth grader, Texas’ top education official said.
Algebra readiness
Algebra readiness
Talented Students Are Kept From Early Algebra. Should States Force Schools to Enroll Them?
By Daniel Mollenkamp May 28, 2024
One California family had a tough choice to make.
Julie Lynem’s son had taken algebra in eighth grade, but hadn’t comprehended some of the core concepts. That left the family to decide whether to make him repeat the class in ninth grade — and potentially disadvantage him by preventing him from taking calculus later in high school — or to have him push through.
